Man on a mission: John Elway has plan to try to improve Broncos

Fire that raged during GM's playing days has seemingly returned

By Nicki Jhabvala

The Denver Post

Posted:
03/03/2018 10:51:39 PM MST

Updated:
03/03/2018 10:52:05 PM MST

Denver executive vice president of football operations John Elway addresses the media on Jan. 2. The Broncos finished the 2017-18 season in last place in the AFC West with a 5-11 record. (AAron Ontiveroz / The Denver Post)

INDIANAPOLIS — On the evening of Nov. 15, 2017, Broncos general manager John Elway stood under a white party tent outside the team's stadium to celebrate a pair of legends and a time of glory. Red Miller, the late head coach who guided the Broncos to their first Super Bowl, in January 1978, was headed for the Ring of Fame and the team's beloved former running back, Terrell Davis, was bound for Canton.

That night was supposed to be theirs. But there was no way it could be, really.

As the temperature dropped and the rain fell, the celebratory spirit fleeted as talk turned to the Broncos' dismal season. They had just dropped five consecutive games since their bye week, would go on to lose the next three, and stuck in the middle of it all was a man seemingly helpless. Elway called his team "soft" that night, a label that didn't sit well with many in the locker room, but he meant it. His honesty was calculated, and the fuse he hoped would spark a change failed to light much of anything.

The Hall of Famer who once reigned between the white lines could do little to salvage the wreckage. So he watched. And waited. And longed for the season to end.

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"If there was any year that I wanted to play, it was last year — to come back as a player, just to try to get things turned around," Elway said at the NFL scouting combine. "Sitting in my chair, it was a long, long year. You've just got to wait for it to be over. I was asked why I'm so happy and I said, 'Because 2017 is over and I get to go into 2018.'"

That time is now, and as Elway spoke at the combine last week, a fire that raged during his playing days had seemingly returned. Finally he was back in control, back in power to try to right a lost franchise.

'I'm not done swinging and missing'

Elway jumped on a plane headed for Indianapolis a week ago and faced a packed agenda that began with NFL competition committee meetings about potential rule changes and ended with meeting after meeting with draft prospects. The NFL's convoluted catch rule will change, he said. It will be simpler, closer to what it was in the past.

His plan for remaking the Broncos, however, figures to be anything but.

With 10 draft picks, including the No. 5 overall selection, and a projected $26 million or so in salary cap space (not including the carry-over space from 2017), Elway is armed with plenty of options and enough tantalizing free agents and rookie prospects to revamp the team. And he is expected to be aggressive as he chases a free-agent quarterback and shuffles the decks around him.

To provide some answers after weeks of speculation, Elway laid out his vision for a handful of names in question. Wide receivers Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders? "The plan is to have them back," Elway said. Same goes for defensive end Derek Wolfe and second-year quarterback Paxton Lynch.

Inside linebacker Todd Davis will be a free agent and will test the open market but, "we'd like to have him back," the GM said. Hopes are high for a pair of a second-year pass catchers, tight end Jake Butt and wideout Carlos Henderson, who spent their rookie season on injured reserve. And Elway admitted he is toying with shuffling the offensive line and plans to obtain help there too, because "we want to continue to get better."

But ambivalence from Elway speaks as loudly as any definitive statement. So when asked about the futures of cornerback Aqib Talib and running back C.J. Anderson, who together would save the team $15.5 million in salary cap space if released, Elway's waffling said enough.

"Like I said, we're looking at every option that we can and where our football team is," he said. "I'm not saying they'll be back for sure, but I'm not going to say they are gone. We're exploring a lot of options on other players too."

Like former starting quarterback Trevor Siemian. "We don't have a plan for Trevor yet. We're going to look at how things fall out and go from there," Elway said.

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